Chapter8

//**10 Traits of Highly Effective Teachers**//

**Chapter 8**

**Mentoring new teachers: How to retain the effective teachers you hire**

We are all fortunate to have a mentoring program for new teachers as a requirement in the state of Iowa. What experiences (good and not so good) do you take from your own mentoring that will help you as you become a building principal responsible for setting up these relationships?

Dani Carter- My first year as a teacher and in the district I was the only newcomer. We started off the day at a local coffee shop just chatting getting to know each other. (There were 3 teachers, both principals, and the super.) The super was not happy with the current mentoring program that was happening in Iowa so he wrote his own program out. It all seemed like a good idea at the time and that it would benefit me greatly as I learned the ropes of the district but the follow through process was inadequate. I was in between two buildings and my mentor was at the high school (a part of the building I was not associated with) and she taught Life Skills and I was in the general education classroom as a co-teacher. She was a very experienced teacher but we were involved with two very different aspects of the school. After my first year I moved to the elementary school full-time where I begged and pleaded my teaching partner to become a mentor. I used the words "you're going to have to help me anyways so why not get paid more for it" and "I will be forever in your debt" because I knew I was going to need more guidance than the year previous. She ended up becoming my mentor (thank goodness) and helped me steer through a variety of situations. As a principal I will take away the fact of you need to have a mentor that you will actually see and talk with. Having someone in the district just say they are your mentor and do nothing more than that is frustrating and left me out to dry. I wouldn't want any teacher to feel this way within their first years in my building so that will be a top priority when I get my first newcomer! I also love the list of 31 ideas for principals to help welcome newcomers, knowing we might have new teachers to the district next year I am hoping to put some of those into play.

Emilie: I am currently not part of a mentoring program. When I was hired at AEA 267 it was expected that we participate in mentoring for three years. I was hired at the same time as two other social workers and we participated in mentoring together. I really liked and appreciated having the support of this small team to compare and contrast our different schools and school districts, along with being able to problem solve situations. AEA 267 restructured last year and we no long have discipline facilitators, who mentored new employees based on their discipline. I will need to find out how we have our mentoring program set up now.

J. Schutte: I am currently not a part of our mentoring program, but I have spent the last 6 years unofficially mentoring new teachers at the 4th grade level. I became a teacher before the mentoring program began (I think). I was fortunate to teach with strong, experienced teachers. Postville did a very nice job with my orientation before I began working there. There were 5 of us. We came to school a day before the other teachers. We met with all the support staff, custodians, and administrators. The business secretary walked us through all the necessary paperwork. Even though I am not a part of our current mentoring program, I am somewhat familiar with it just from conversations that I have had with our new teachers in district. My current colleague in 4th grade has a 5th grade teacher as his mentor. I agree with Dani that I maybe would have been a better mentor for him since I collaborate with him daily. I help him with several questions daily. I am an experienced teacher. I am curious why I was not considered to be his mentor.

We are all lucky to have a mentor - as long as you aren't in the Catholic School system. I have not had a mentor for the first three years of teaching, and while I felt like I was comfortable on my own there are many who feel lost in the beginning. It is important that we ensure that our new teachers have the nurturing they need to be effective in the school. I chose to look elsewhere for my mentoring, and ended up having regular conversations with co-workers whom I trusted, and my past mentors from student teaching. I relied heavily on what I learned as a student teacher, and I think at can take a lot of the ideas into my time as an administrator. It is okay to allow people to make a mistake, which is difficult for me to handle. However, if people do not make mistakes some behaviors may never change. This is a discovery - not a showcase of brilliance. Furthermore, the idea of preparation should be a key element in creating great teaching. Use the resources around you, and have your teachers in contact with multiple other staff members. Mentors are key in keeping teachers in the field. We have all heard about the different facts that show teachers leave the profession early and find new jobs. Our job as mentors is to help guide new teachers into a comfortable place where they can take risks and manage their room and their learning experiences. (Einsweiler)

Daters: I am currently a mentor for a first year teacher in my school. The process I have gone through with my mentoring certification this year has been very similar to this class. I do non-judgmental observations and summaries, I support her where needed and guide her with questioning in areas that she struggles. I have to say though that either the mentor I had when I was a new teacher did not receive the same training as I did or she just didn't do her job. I think the support I provide for my mentee is very direct and focused where my mentoring experience as a mentee was very judgmental. I think the one thing from my mentoring experiences that I will take to my job as a principal is the idea of confidentiality and support. I will do everything I can to match up mentor and mentee's so that they have a comfortable and confidential relationship that the mentee feels supported by their mentor.

Jordan Henrichs: I had an incredibly positive mentoring experience. My first year teaching I was assigned a mentor. I was paired up with my 5th grade coworker who had 15 years of teaching experience but had only taught in Cedar Falls for one year. The other member of the fifth grade team I was joining was about to retire and not in a position to mentor any new teachers. My mentor was and still is an awesome teacher (we have worked together for 8 years now!) However we were navigating Cedar Falls together as newbies. The "mentor" title was a bit of a commitment on her part, as she was to attend a night class 3 hours long with me once a month for my first two years. The time commitment backed off a bit in the second year, but it was still a lot to ask of someone I hardly knew at the time!

We hit it off and had a blast at the classes. Partly because we were a bit cynical and honestly, didn't take a lot of it seriously. Partly because we discovered we were very similar people. Everything I did as a teacher in my first 2-3 years of teaching, I bounced off of her. Collaboration wasn't really what it is now in our district. It was just becoming a buzzword. Yet, it came so naturally to the two of us as we collaborated on everything. Other teachers commented on that and began following suit! We felt like trendsetters in our building!

What I can take away from my own personal mentoring experience that will help me as an administrator, is that it is all about providing teachers with the time to get to know each other. I love the list of 31 things in the book and will definitely earmark that page to revisit when I am a principal. But nowhere on that list is the mention of providing new teachers with time to collaborate with and to get to know those they will be working closely with. I worked with my 5th grade team on a daily basis. There were weeks in my first few years teaching where I never saw my principal! But my coworkers were my constant. As a principal, I want to be there for my new teachers and help them grow, but at the same time, I want to realistically remember that their teammates are who they will undoubtedly turn to for help on more occasions than myself. I want to provide them with time to learn about each other and grow together.

My mentor and I could have taken the mentoring program our district offered more seriously than we did, but to me, it didn't really matter. We were getting to know each other as teachers and as people and that time was more important than anything else at the moment. Because without it, I would not had someone that I felt comfortable leaning on and learning from. I would not have felt comfortable taking risks early in my career if I didn't have someone I could trust to reflect with. As I said, those 31 things in the book are great ideas, but above all, I want my new teachers to get to know my other great teachers as people and providing them with some time to do that, I believe, will be beneficial to them.

//Sherri Peterson- We are fortunate to have a strong mentoring program in Iowa and in our district. When I started teaching mentoring was inheard of, but most teachers found a way to get mentored informally. I was lucky to be in a building with many special ed classrooms so I was able to find teachers who could answer my many questions. I was also blessed with a strong, experienced para who shared her expertise about the day-to-day workings of a self-contained classroom. I also had the luxury ofr working closely with other AEA support staff who had much smaller caseloads than they do now. The OT, PT, SLP, and nurse helped me to gain expertise in all of the areas that helped to make me a good teacher for the variety of students assigned to me. They worked with me in the classroom as well as finding time to consult with me outside of the school day. They gave me books and articles to read and helped me tweak the program each year to meet the needs of new students.// //I have been a mentor many times since the more formal mentoring program has come into being. Currently, I mentor the teacher who took my old job when I moved into the position I am in now. We are not in the same building and it has been very difficult to be the kind of mentor that I want to be. I think that mentors need to be available to their mentees on a more regular basis than I am now. I know that she has found a variety of informal mentors in the building and I am grateful for that. She is developing into a great teacher, but I have had little to do with that. I think that most of us find mentors throughout our career as we venture into new curriculum, assessment, and new positions. I have struggled in my new job to find someone who has the time to devote to me and my many questions. Thank goodness for e-mail. That has been the saving grace for me with my many questions and concerns. Most colleagues will take the time to answer and e-mail even if they do not have time to meet face-to-face.//

//I do believe that the mentoring process is vital to developing great teachers. First and foremost, we need to do a good job of hiring staff. Secondly we need to make sure that we pick the right mentors for these new teachers so that we can retain good teachers. In my Teacher Leadership program at UNI we were fortunate to be able to attend the Mentoring and Induction Conference for 2 years. The importance of mentoring and the development of a high quality mentoring program was illustrated by the attendees and presenters at the conference. As a teacher leader or building principal, following through with mentoring assignments and checking with new hires about the mentoring relationship will be vital to the success of new teachers and the development of a strong faculty.//

// Laughlin: During my personal first 2 years of teaching I had an extremely qualified, fabulous mentor who really took the mentoring role seriously. We set up a calendar to meet every other week and accomplish both the required work that was asked of us in the program, but also just to chat and talk about any needs that I had. She was fabulous at just stopping into my room for brief check-in's while my students were there as well as just to stop in and say hello. She made me feel so welcome in the building and in my new teaching profession. I knew that I had made the right choice in my professional life because of how she made me feel about it. She was always able to provide me with critical feedback as well as positive feedback to make me reflect. As I have been a mentor for other first year teachers I have tried to do similar things with them as I went through my first 2 years. I believe strongly that the mentor program shows teachers what the district really feels about their staff. If they have a strong mentor program, then I believe the culture is a positive one. I also believe that mentors need to be those truly qualified teachers who want to be a mentor for the reasons to help teachers feel welcome and really understand what teaching is, not just to get extra money for themselves. I feel as an administrator we should really think about who should be a new teachers mentor and not just anyone can be a mentor. It should be someone who can relate and truly be someone who would regularly collaborate with them. I felt this chapter provided valuable information that my mentor did with me even though our mentoring program was not organized well, but she made it that way. I am currently working with one of our teachers who has been leading the mentor program for several years to revamp and improve our mentoring program. I plan on taking this chapter to her and having her read it over and talk about how we can incorporate some of the ideas in it into our program. //

Katie Kimber: Funny that this question comes up now…I have been a mentor to new teachers for the last three years. I was just finishing up some things for mentoring last week and I was thinking about all of the people who have been in charge of mentoring over the years. I could not remember my own mentoring experience at all. (This is only my 7th year teaching) I remember my mentor, but I had a hard time recalling what we did during mentoring sessions and what I really gained from mentoring. The mentor I had is a great teacher and someone I still talk to today, I vividly remember her taking me out to coffee one day and we just talked about how things were going. This is really all I remember. There are many things our district requires to complete mentoring, but in the end I think it is really about forming a relationship with another teacher who you can talk to about problems that may arise.

Now I have my mentee, I try to support, encourage, and help him in times of desperation! I hope he remembers these things about mentoring and the strategies we have talked about. Thinking about mentoring from the role of the principal, I think it is critical to form a good match between the mentor and mentee. My mentee has my previous job so it has been easy for me to help him and give him advice about things he is unsure about. If I was mentoring someone in another subject area I would have a much harder time helping him with strategies.

Bagnall: A sincere congratulations to all of you that had a great mentoring experience. We have a formal two year mentoring program in my district and I was assigned a teacher that is regarded as one of our best. We did not have a single meeting in two years. This teacher never attended any of the meeting we were to attend jointly, yet he still was to get paid. He was a very influential person in the union and I think he was viewed as untouchable. I would see him in the halls from time to time and he'd ask if everything was okay so it wasn't like he totally ignored me. I did take into consideration that I don't look like the average first year teacher. So as I was reading the 31 things you can do I had to laugh and they really did make sense to me. I will be a much better principal because of my experience. During our teacher meeting when the new teachers meet the vets for the first time, I was following a guy out of the meeting that was talking to another teacher and he was asking if she "saw the old guy they hired to do TAG?" I said "yes but I hear he's really smart" and they could have crawled into a hole. As a principal I will try to do much more team building than I experienced at my school. I will stop in the rooms of the new teachers regularly. The principal was in my room three times my first year for evaluations and that was it. I take it as a compliment that they felt like they could leave me alone, but I realize it isn't the way teacher orientation should be done. My mentor for principal is more available and seems to enjoy the mentoring process.I'll try to be more like him.

Maier: I received very little help in my mentoring experience 7 years ago. My official mentor was the alternative kindergarten teacher. We spoke, maybe, once per month and the meetings were short and not very worthwhile. She did nothing wrong and was an exceptional teacher, but we just didn’t mesh well together and had very opposite teaching styles. I found more help from my teaching partner. We had very similar styles and got along very well. We established a relationship of give and take in terms of ideas related to our classrooms. I learned far more from her then from my official mentor. I know the system has changed even since then. My mentor went to the AEA mentor meetings and I didn’t. Now, our teachers go to AEA mentoring meetings with their mentor and have assignments to work through after each meeting. This allows for more opportunities to collaborate and get to know one another. One thing I find important, especially after my experience, is not just to put a new teacher with whoever the building mentor is, but to match them with someone that fits well with the new teacher. Whether it is by grade level or personality, you need two people that will work well together.

Cassandra Hart: As I begin teaching twelve years ago I never had official mentor form the district. My mother was a teacher for thirty five years. She was my mentor. I was so blessed to have other teachers, administrators, curriculum directors to serve as mentors as well. We all attended the same church and knew each other very well. I volunteered in their classrooms, served on different committees with them. Where ever they needed me they asked and the bond was formed. The role of a Teacher Mentor is to guide the development of a beginning teacher and share their expertise through coaching. **“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ** ~Maya Angelou said it best.

Leisa Breitfelder: I have been through the mentoring process three times. Once as a new teacher, once as a mentor, and then again when I was a new AEA employee. When I was a first year teacher I was an early childhood special education teacher. Our facility was a 4000 square foot building for our preschool program and we had 3 teachers, including myself. I was right on-sight in the same room as my mentors because I was shared with the other two teachers. This was a fabulous experience because we were so close in proximity we would plan our lessons together, problem solve students, and was provided guidance with IEP paperwork. The most beneficial for me was the problem solving students. Since we were located in the same facility, they saw my students and were much more able to help me.

 When I was a mentor for a new teacher in the same grade as I was it was much more difficult. Since we had the same planning time and breaks it was hard to have coverage for my classroom to observe her teaching. I also wasn’t given training in mentor like they do now therefore I felt ill-prepared on how to help the new teacher. When I was again a mentee for our AEA I had a struggle because my mentor was not within my same profession. It was hard for her to help me with my specific line of work but she could help me with more generalized assistance.

 As a principal and having teachers in the mentor program I will ensure that room coverage occurs for my mentor teachers. If I have older levels (middle school/high school) I would look at the possibility of sharing mentors. I could have one part mentor to help with the curriculum and another mentor from the same age group to assist with the students.

C. Jacobs: I never really had a mentor either when I first started teaching 16 years ago. I guess I just figured things out and asked questions as needed. I had an interesting administrator who just told me that I was smart and could make decisions just fine on my own. Don't laugh, this was true. The second day after I accepted the job, he told me he was a proud High School Drop out and went back to get his G.E.D. and then continued to go back to school and with some help got his Admin. degree. Whoa! So when you go through that at age 20, you kind of believe anything is possible, right? Well, I did mentor a few other teachers in my previous district that weren't officially assigned to me. I agree with some other colleagues that have mentioned, "a great mentor is one that keeps things confidential, is encouraging, and is a good-fit with the content and grade level that the mentee's discipline is in..." If mentors could help first year teachers get off to a great start, I think the entire level of expectations could be higher across the board...Finally, as others have inferred, the building climate of a district has a lot to do with how the first year teacher adapts to the district.

Zabel- I struggled with my mentor relationship in my first two years. There is a lot that goes into creating a good mentor mentee relationship and obviously my mentor was interested in the $1000 she received from the school than helping me become a better teacher. We very rarley meet on a regular basis and often times she lied about the time we did work together. In my opinion, she saw me coming in as a new teacher, a way for her to establish things she couldn't with the previous teacher. I did find a different mentor to assit me with things, on my own. The man I coach basketball with and is our AD really took me under his wings and was twice the mentor my assigned one was. I guess as an administrator, it is important to have knowledge of your staff to make decisions on who would match up nicely and be effective for the new teacher. In many cases this can make or break the effectiveness of the new teacher and the possibility of retaining this teacher, especially if they are a good teacher. So, it is definetly important to establish an effective mentorship program to develop and foster professional relationships in the district.

I started out with two different mentors in my two years because I had been in two different districts. My first one worked for Chicago Public Schools and was solely a mentor. He was responsible for 20-something teachers and roamed all throughout the district. He was great in helping me garner resources, ideas for the classroom, and passing on words of advice from my then principal. He did a great job. I was in a rough school and I was a first-year teacher so he had a lot of great advice. It's worth noting that some of that advice takes a couple years for it to sink in. My second mentor did not spend much time mentoring. He was within the district and didn't seem to want to 'invade' my classroom. He was very hands-off, friendly, and would say he was there for advice but nothing really came of it. None of our conversations were regarding pedagogy but every now and then he would ask what we were doing in class. I think part of the problem was he was not comfortable what he saw as imposing and he also was busy. I currently mentor a teacher in the building. He is somewhat stand-offish and not trusting when it comes to me coming in his classroom. And since we just cut two teachers, that won't help ease tension. We have a good relationship but I think he sees me as too close to administration. Something that would help is that if it was mandated that we had to report our conversations with the templates that the New Teacher Center uses, it would take some of the pressure off of barging into a classroom. I think holding conferences between the administrator, mentor, and mentee would be a great idea as well to hold everyone accountable and build trust. It would make all the difference for me and I'm sure it couldn't hurt others. (Moran)

I had an awesome mentor. Luckily our building principal considered personalities, styles, needs and mentor teacher effectiveness when assigning mentors. I would use all of these things to assign mentors. In our district their is a mentoring program run at the district level. My observation of this has been that mentors and mentees would benefit more from guidance and direction on how they can work together in their buildings. I have observed many positive mentor/mentee relationships doing things above and beyond what the district office requires. I have also observed very little collaboration in some cases between mentor/mentee. I believe in a district as large as Waterloo it would be beneficial to have mentor/mentee and induction protocol at the building level as well as or in place of the what takes place at the district level. (Pugh)